2.2.2 The Unity Of God

All the basic principles of Islam are fully dealt with in the Holy Qur’an, and so is the doctrine of faith in God, of which the corner-stone is belief in the Unity of God (tauhid). The best-known expression of Divine Unity is that contained in the declaration of la ilaha ill-Allah. It is made up of four words, la (no), ilah (that which is worshipped), illa (except) and Allah (the proper name of the Divine Being). Thus these words, which are commonly rendered into English as meaning “there is no god but Allah,” convey the significance that there is nothing which deserves to be worshipped except Allah. It is this confession which when combined with the confession of the prophethood of Muhammad — Muhammad-un Rasulullah —, admits a man into the fold of Islam. The Unity of God, according to the Qur’an, implies that God is One in His person (dhat), One in His attributes (sifat) and One in His works (af‘al). His Oneness in His person means that there is neither plurality of gods nor plurality of persons in the Godhead; His Oneness in attributes implies that no other being possesses one or more of the Divine attributes in perfection; His Oneness in works implies that none can do that which God has done, or which God may do. The doctrine of Unity is beautifully summed up in one of the shortest and earliest chapters of the Holy Qur’an: “Say: He , Allah, is One; Allah is He on Whom all depend; He begets not, nor is He begotten; and none is like Him” (ch. 112).

The opposite of Unity (Tauhid) is shirk, implying partnership. In the Holy Qur’an, shirk is used to signify the associating of gods with God, whether such association be with respect to the person of God or His attributes or His works, or with respect to the obedience which is due to Him alone. Shirk is said to be the gravest of all sins: “Surely, ascribing partners to Him (shirk) is a grievous iniquity” (31:13); “Allah forgives not that a partner should be set up with Him and forgives all besides that to whom He pleases” (4:48). This is not due to a feeling of jealousy on the part of God — in fact jealousy, according to the Holy Qur’an, is quite unthinkable as an attribute of the Divine Being; it is due to the fact that shirk demoralizes man, while Divine Unity brings about his moral elevation. According to the Holy Qur’an, man is God’s vicegerent (khalifa) on earth (2:30), and this shows that he is gifted with the power of controlling the rest of the earthly creation. We are told expressly that he has been made to rule the world: “Allah is He Who made subservient to you the sea that the ships may glide therein by His command, and that you may seek His grace, and that you may give thanks. And He has made subservient to you whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth, all, from Himself; surely there are signs in this for a people who reflect” (45:12, 13). Man is thus placed above the whole of creation. He is placed even above the angels who are spoken of as making obeisance to him (2:34). If, then, man has been created to rule the universe and is gifted with the power to subdue everything and to turn it to his use, does he not degrade himself by taking other things for gods, by bowing before the very things which he has been created to conquer and rule? This is an argument which the Holy Qur’an has itself advanced against shirk. Thus the words, “Shall I seek a lord other than Allah, while He is the Lord of all things” (6:164), are followed in the next verse by “And He it is Who has made you successors in the land.” And again: “Shall I seek for you a god other than Allah, while He has made you excel all created things?” (7:140). Shirk is therefore, of all sins the most serious because it degrades man and renders him unfit for attaining the high position destined for him in the Divine scheme.

The various forms of shirk mentioned in the Holy Qur’an are an indication of the ennobling message underlying the teaching of Divine Unity. These are summed up in the verse: “That we shall worship (or serve) none but Allah and that we shall not associate aught with Him and that some of us shall not take others for lords besides Allah” (3:64). These are really three forms of shirk — a fourth is mentioned separately. The most palpable form of shirk is that in which anything besides God is worshipped, such as stones, idols, trees, animals, tombs, heavenly bodies, forces of nature, or human beings who are supposed to be demi-gods or gods or incarnations of God or sons or daughters of God. The second kind of shirk, which is less palpable, is the associating of other things with God, that is, to suppose that other things and beings possess the same attributes as the Divine Being. The beliefs that there are three persons in the Godhead, and that the Son and the Holy Ghost are eternal, Omnipotent and Omniscient like God Himself, as in the Christian creed, or that there is a Creator of Evil along with a Creator of Good, as in Zoroastrianism, or that matter and soul are co-eternal with God and self-existing like Himself, as in Hinduism — all come under this head. The last kind of shirk is that in which some men take others for their lords. The meaning of this was explained by the Holy Prophet himself, in answer to a question put to him. When verse 9:31 was revealed — “they have taken their doctors of law and their monks for lords besides Allah” — ‘Adiyy ibn Hatim, a convert from Christianity, said to the Holy Prophet that the Jews and the Christians did not worship the doctors of law and the monks. The Holy Prophet asked him if it was not true that they blindly obeyed them in what they enjoined and what they forbade, and ‘Adiyy answered in the affirmative. This report shows that to follow the behests of great men blindly was also considered shirk. The fourth kind of shirk is referred to in the verse: “Hast thou seen him who takes his low desires for his god?” (25:43). Here the blind submission to one’s own desires is described in words used for shirk. Thus belief in the Unity of God means that true obedience is due to God alone, and whosoever obeys either anyone else, or his own low desires, in preference to the Divine commandments, is really guilty of shirk.

Of the different forms of shirk, idolatry is cited more frequently than all the others, and is denounced in the most scathing terms in the Holy Qur’an. This is because idolatry is the most heinous form of shirk and also was the most rampant throughout the world at the advent of Islam. Not only is idolatry condemned in its gross form, which takes it for granted that an idol can cause benefit or do harm, but the idea is also controverted that there is any meaning underlying this gross form of worship: “And those who choose protectors besides Him, (say): We serve them only that they may bring us nearer to Allah. Surely Allah will judge between them in that in which they differ” (39:3). A similar excuse is put forward today by some of the idolators. It is said that an idol is used only to enable a worshipper to concentrate his attention, and become more deeply engrossed in Divine contemplation. This idea is controverted in the verse quoted above — “that they may bring us nearer to Allah.” But even in this case the worshipper must believe that the idol on which he centres his attention is a symbol of the Divine Being, which is a grossly false notion; and, moreover, it is the idol on which the worshipper’s attention is centred, not the Divine Being. It is also wrong to suppose that a material symbol is necessary for concentration, for attention can be every whit as easily concentrated on a spiritual object, and it is only when the object of attention is spiritual that concentration helps the development of will-power. Along with idol-worship, the Holy Qur’an also prohibits dedication to idols (6:137).

Another form of prevailing shirk denounced in the Holy Qur’an is the worship of the sun, the moon, the stars, in fact everything which might appear to control the destinies of man. This is expressly forbidden: “And of His signs are the night and the day and the sun and the moon. Adore not the sun nor the moon, but adore Allah Who created them” (41:37). The argument advanced against the worship of the sun and the moon not only applies to all heavenly bodies but also, and equally well, to all the forces of nature, which are in fact again and again mentioned as being made subservient to man.

The Trinity is also denounced as a form of shirk: “So believe in Allah and his messengers and say not, Three. Desist, it is better for you; Allah is only One God” (4:171). It is sometimes alleged that the Qur’anic conception of the Trinity is a mistaken one, because it speaks of Jesus and Mary as having been taken for two gods: “O Jesus, son of Mary! Didst thou say to men, Take me and my mother for two gods besides Allah?” (5:116). The reference here is to Mariolatry. That Mary was worshipped is a fact, and the Holy Qur’an’s reference to it is significant, but it should be noted that neither the Holy Qur’an nor the Holy Prophet has anywhere said that Mary was the third person of the Trinity. Where the Holy Qur’an denounces the Trinity, it speaks of the doctrine of sonship but does not speak of the worship of Mary at all; and where it speaks of the worship of Mary, it does not refer to the Trinity.

Another form of shirk, refuted in the Holy Qur’an, is the doctrine that God has sons or daughters. The pagan Arabs ascribed daughters to God while the Christians hold that God has a son. Though the doctrine of ascribing daughters to god is mentioned in the Holy Qur’an several times, yet it is against the Christian doctrine that the Holy Book speaks with gravest emphasis: “And they say: The Beneficent God has taken to Himself a son. Certainly you have made an abominable assertion! The heavens may almost be rent thereat, and the earth cleave asunder, and the mountains fall down in pieces, that they ascribe a son to the Beneficent God!” (19:88-91). The doctrine is denounced repeatedly, even in the earliest revelations, which shows that from the very first the Holy Qur’an set before itself the correction of this great error. It will be observed that a mention of the doctrine of sonship is often followed by the word subhana-hu, which word is used to indicate the purity of God from all defects. The reason for this is that the doctrine of sonship is due to the supposition that God cannot forgive sins unless He receives some satisfaction therefor, and this satisfaction is supposed to have been afforded by the crucifixion of the Son of God, who alone is said to be sinless. The doctrine of sonship is thus practically a denial of the quality of forgiveness in God, and this amounts to attributing a defect to Him. It is for this reason also that a most forcible denunciation of the doctrine of sonship is followed by the words: “It is not worthy of the Beneficent God (Rahman) that He should take to Himself a son” (19:92). the word Rahman signifies originally the Lord of immeasurable mercy Who requires no satisfaction or compensation for a display of the quality of mercy which is inherent in Him, and the attribute of being Rahman negates the doctrine of sonship.

That various kinds of shirk mentioned in the Holy Qur’an show that, in the doctrine of Unity, it gives to the world an ennobling message of advancement all round, physical as well as moral and spiritual. Man is freed not only from slavery to animate and inanimate objects, but also from sub-servience to the great and wondrous forces of nature which, he is told, he can subdue for his benefit. It goes further and delivers man from that greatest of slaveries, slavery to man. It does not allow to any mortal the dignity of Godhead, or of being more than a mortal; for the greatest of mortals is commanded to say: “I am only a mortal like you; it is revealed to me that your God is One God” (18:110). Thus all the bonds which fettered the mind of man were broken, and he was set on the road to progress. A slave mind, as the Holy Qur’an plainly says, is incapable of doing anything good and great, and hence the first condition for the advancement of man was that his mind should be set free from the trammels of all kinds of slavery, which was accomplished in the message of Divine Unity.

The doctrine of the Unity of God, besides casting off the bonds of slavery which had enthralled the human mind, and thus opening the way for its advancement, carries another significance equally great, if not greater, to wit, the idea of the unity of the human race. He is the Rabb of all the nations (Rabb al-‘alamin). Rabb in Arabic signifies the Fosterer of a thing in such a manner as to make it attain one condition after another until it reaches its goal of completion (R.) The words Rabb al-‘alamin thus signify that all the nations of the world are, as it were, the children of one Father, and that He takes equal care of all, bringing all to their goal of completion by degrees. Hence God is spoken of in the Holy Qur’an as granting not only His physical but also His spiritual sustenance, His revelation, to all the nations of the world: “And for every nation there is a messenger” (10:47); “There is not a people but a warner has gone among them” (35:24). We further find that the Holy Qur’an upholds the idea that God, being the God of all nations, deals with all of them alike. He hearkens to the prayers of all, whatever their religion or nationality. He is equally merciful to all and forgives the sins of all. He rewards the good deeds of the Muslim and the non-Muslim alike; and not only does He deal with all nations alike, but we are further told that He created them all alike, in the Divine nature: “The nature made by Allah in which He has created men” (30:30). And this unity of the human race, which is thus a natural corollary of the doctrine of the Unity of God, is further stressed in the plain words that “Mankind is a single nation” (2:213) and that, “all are but a single nation” (10:19).